Ulleung-do in Color

Ulleung-do's seawalk is a crazy idea born out of necessity and... I don't know, arrogance, I guess.  Ulleung-do has a few rocky beaches, but the coastline is mostly cliffs that drop straight down into the water making that water inaccessible to all but the most nimble of mountain goats.  So the thinking must have gone, "how can we get people down to the water's edge, the beautiful, crystal clear water, and give people a must see, once in a lifetime experience?"  

Obviously, cut a path in the rock face, build bridges, insert handrails, basically completely conquer nature with a combination of metal, concrete, and bravado.  The result is 2.6 Km's of path carved out and laid down, following a winding, twisting, jagged coastline and offering some of the most beautiful views in all of Korea.  

You can see in this first picture how clear the water is, probably owing to a lack of pollution and the fact that the island is relatively young, meaning instead of sand, big rocks.  No sand means nothing to muddy the water, meaning super-clear, super-clean water that makes you want to leap off a cliff and dive in.  The lack of pollution surrounding the island is refreshing and grants views miles in all directions.  You can't see much more than water, but in a country where every view is dominated by apartment complexes and factories and buildings, it just feels good to look out and see nothing.  And if the 2.6 Km's currently wrapping its way around the island isn't enough, they're expanding the walk in the other direction.  All you can see now is an impressive path carved out in the mountainside, disappearing around a curve, but  I'm sure it will be as impressive as the first part.  

If I'm still here when it's finished, we'll be headed back.  As always, here's 10 pictures and some foolish comments.

A series of bridges, a winding spiral staircase or two, you've got yourself a seawalk.  It's not a difficult walk, but you should bring some water.  

Squid!  Ulleung-do's finest, drying in the sun.

I re-discovered my fear of heights while on this trip.  The spiral staircases going up four stories into the sky didn't help.

It's just the type of place that makes you go "$%@* Yeah!" when you get to the top.

There's this one little rock in the water that everybody has to get their picture taken on.  This dude was serious about it.

Here's our shot, look at all that sea behind us.

I think that people were hunting for sea life and then eating it right on this beach.  There were all these piles of shells scattered on the rocks, pretty awesome if that's your thing.

Korea loves a goofy statue, and Ulleung-do is no different.  We did not see any dolphins, other than this one.

There were a number of secret beaches you could see from the peaks of mountain tops, but couldn't reach without a boat.  A private boat tour would be awesome.  Next time.

Ulleung-do was amazing.  I'm slowly working through all the pictures and for awhile, this blog will be 10pictures in Ulleung-do.  Also, I hope everybody likes the re-design.  I couldn't take that old look anymore so now, this.  Also, I went over 10,000 pageviews during the life of this blog, which is pretty cool.  Thanks to everybody who stops by this little project.  Finally, if you haven't seen it yet, my brother, sister, and I have started a blog over at anheirandthespares.blogspot.com.  Right now it's a blog about what's it's like living in Arizona, Korea, and Kurdistan.   Check it out.